Nikko

The three to four hour trip to Nikko, I'd heard, was well worth the effort, so Monday I boarded a bus and set out. We hit countryside quickly and were accompanied by gardens, rice fields and agricultural flat lands soon giving way, as we started to climb, to steep, lushly green, thickly forested hillsides.

Nikko is in the midst of their autumn festival. The evenings are getting cooler and the leaves are just beginning to turn. Walking through the temple grounds was reminiscent of a stroll through the California Redwoods with the towering, massive trees filtering the light and providing the perfect environ for vibrant moss, fern and lichen underfoot and giving glimpses of crimson and orange in the foliage. The sound of running water was everywhere. It was lovely and peaceful.

The temple buildings were magnificent: colorful, heavily carved and painted in brilliant colors. The main temple area was staging ground for the annual procession giving visitors a close-up view of what life must have looked like 300 years ago under the ruling shogunate. I got lots of pictures, ate some great food, made some friends and thoroughly enjoyed myself. What a beautiful day. One day was not enough.  (Some local women I met today and a sweet traveling companion I met on the bus, out for a jaunt like myself. I'm in the center.)